The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-01-29

Little Women at q Discount,
ziska, in N. Y. Letter to Sunday Ne,os.

Ziska, IN N. Y. Letter to Sunday Ne,cs.
Few have any idea of the trials and
tribulations of cultivated women small
in stature who seek honest employment
in this city. The little lady may be
modest, pretty, neatly dressed, affable
in conversation and agreeable in man.
ner, yet almost every avenue leading to
a respectable living is closed to her.
The shopkeeper picks his female help in
the spirit that animates him when he
makes display of goods in his windows.
And it must be confessed that practical
ly, if not theoretically, he is right. A
commanding and fne-looking woman
will sell sealskin cloak in five cases out
of six, where a little body would fail.
The big woman can expatiate more
grandly on its merits, and by wrapping
it around her and, parading before a
mirror, show it off in all its perfection.
The little lady may be refined gold, but
there is nothing impressive about her.
Her small stature is misfortune that
she cannot remedy. She cannot become
a floor walker in dry goods emporium,
for she lacks the sweep and carriage and
the lordly aplomb which awe employees
and attract purchasers. She has great
trouble in securing even a place behind
the counter. Her fragility and tiny size
are in the way. She cannot reach the
goods on top shelf, nor can she return
them after sale is made without climb
ing to the counter, which ungraceful act
would quench the last spark of dignity
left by nature at her birth. She is out
of place again in the parlors of a fash
ionable milliner or dress maker. You
may find her sitting in little back room
adjoining, stitching away in bad light
and worse atmosphere, with her knees
up to her chin, but you will never see
her in the salesroom. "a small woman
is out of place in show room, said
Madame Demores> when one of her
friends sought situation for worthy
but under-sized lady. Il have no use
for her there. She cannot sell even
pattern. People will not go to her.
They will hardly ask her question.
They pass her by as though she was a
child, and 60 to saleswoman more sty-
lish and commanding. One is promi-
nent and the other Insignificant in ap-
pearance, and the prominent figure in
variably attracts attentions
A place for the little lady was found
in the mailing department at Sc week.
AT the same time tall woman of good
figure who carried her head like Juno,
neither we'll educated nor particularly
agreeable, was placed in the showroom
at SI4 per week. She was not as refined
nor as painstaking as the little one, but
she had the physique so highly priced
by an experienced modiste. The little
one toiled ten hours day with hardly
a respite, while the big woman walked
grandly up and down the parlor super
intending sales and keeping everything
trim.
Petite women are rarely employed as
fore-women in large business houses.
Such situations are almost invariably
ladies of regal figure and hanteur. A
few are pretty, some are intellectual,
and less are charming. Many are Am
azons by nature as well as in appearance.
They are made majestic by size and
bearing alone, and are nearly destitute
of feeling for those of smaller stature
whose lines are not cast in places SO
pleasant. Such forewomen command
from $40 to 500 a week. They can be
found in every establishment where FASH
ionable female attire is sold. Salaries
seem to be proportioned to the size of
the woman employed, and not on her
ability. To be sure, there are hundreds
of little women holding comparatively
pleasant situations, but even in these
they labor under natural disadvantages.
The salaries are light, and their figures
forbid promotion. The little ones are
to be pitied. With warmer hearts, keen
er intuitions, brighter intellects, more
knowledge of human nature and more
tact in many cases than their larger Sis
tiers, their business sphere remains mar
row and contracted. Marriage alone
can take them from the rugged road of
life and transplant them to the few pleas
ant gardens that line the way.